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A Very Small Bald spot. I'm 22 Years Old?
About how many grafts and how much money would it cost to repair these two bald spots that
were caused by cuts during my childhood?
Thank you for your question.
At the age of 22 you submitted a question about 2 bald spot the result of childhood
trauma that resulted in areas of patches that don't grow hair and your asking about how
much will cost and how many grafts you will need.
Well, it's first important to define by physical examination, the type of scaring that is present
and that is something I can't do by just looking at your photos. But there are a couple of
concepts that I want you to learn about and I think it would be helpful in you making
a decision. First of all, assuming by the photos that you are of African descent or
that you have a type of very curly hair quality, then we have a couple of things that we need
be aware of when it comes to making decision about doing transplants.
First of all, when you wear your hair very short you have to understand that any type
of donor which means taking hair from the permanent zone in the back and moving it to
the front whether you do an FUE or follicular transplant or a FUE follicular extraction,
where one is traditional donor strip, where strip of hair is removed versus the newer
recently very popular concept of removing hair from little punches. When you wear your
hair short some scaring will be present so you have to be mindful about that and in my
practice I generally recommend a strip and I'll explain why I do but before we go on
to that lets go to another concept. Numbers of grafts for most people of African origin
the hair can look a lot of volume but the space between the hair follicles is actually
greater than Caucasian or Asian race and essentially hair grows in a circular or curly pattern.
And so you can understand if they are close to each other, it could be a problem with
growing hairs.
So when we evaluate someone for hair transplant, we look at the area that needs to be transplanted
and we estimate how many hairs can be placed in a way that would respect the blood supply
to the hair as well as are likely to survive and make it one of the things that even in
an area when you do transplanted hair that is not a scar like in case like yourself you
still don't get 100% growth of all the grafts that are placed with traditional hair transplant
so that brings me to the next concept .
In my practice, we have been fortunate to be in a leader ship position in this concept
I refer to as hair regeneration. Although this doesn't apply to you this point but understanding
hair loss or hair thinning has something to do with stem cell based activity of hair follicles
such that when hair is thinning those stem cells becomes inactive and the hair disappears.
Well we have been using a material called extracellular matrix to assist with hair loss
from male pattern or female pattern hair loss but we also used it and this is origin of
the basis of non surgical treatment we have also used it for hair transplant. You see,
the idea is with advanced cell regenerative healing, the yield of the transplant becomes
considerably greater so we would have to use this extra cellular matrix that we are using
that is manufactured by a company called ACell. And we would apply it to a transplant so that
when we place the hair follicles, the hair follicles are more likely to make it as well
as the donor area where we harvest would also heal better. There is no technology that eliminates
scar all together but I have found that a lot of people who are of African descent who
wear their hair very short even with a good scar and incisional scar or FUE, you can still
see it. So you have to be very careful about the choice. A lot of times, we suggest to
our patients that they have to actually grow their hair a little bit so that that would
cover the scar the way it would just a little bit of length. Nonetheless, in terms of your
treatment plan, we would have a discussion about the number of hairs you will need. I
would evaluate the scar tissue.
Now in my practice I have transplanted hair in a lot of areas including scar tissues people
would have burns from the materials where there is a round circle patch. I placed hair
grafts and I have successfully able to grow hair so it's remarkable how resilient hair
follicles can be with a minimum amount of support even if thin scar. Now with this new
technology of hair regeneration or stem cells based, adult stem cells that can further enhance
the healing ability of the hair follicle. There is an opportunity to get you the best
result possible. You see a lot of times, people have hair transplant if they have straight
hair even if they don't have not such great scars, if you grow your hair long, it would
cover. For someone like yourself really requires optimal treatment of every level because so
many ways there is very little forgiveness for something where you will be able to see
the result of having a procedure and that's kind of attention you don't want.
So summary I think you would be a good candidate for hair transplant. I can't tell you the
cost of these procedures vary from region to region and I require really a physical
exam so it would be unfair to cost you how much would it cost but understanding the no
of hairs that needs to be delivered, how hair the hairs will be harvested and using advanced
technology to me should be a standard of care now that we have been able to proceed with
this material and have been demonstrating it in the past 2 and half years in my practice
or so.
I think that you have an opportunity to learn more and make a decision and a choice when
you are ready and so I hope that was helpful and thank you for your question.